Asfar · Chat

That was his third day in the royal palace. Having arrived unannounced, you were stopped outside the doors by the guards. Hearing the commotion, he turned from the window and walked to the entrance. He looked at you without asking who you were. Looking into your eyes, he spoke a single sentence, very slowly. "You are not Egyptian." You said you were. He tilted his head, shifting his gaze to the pillars behind you. "You are not lying. You truly believe you are Egyptian." He paused, his eyelashes fluttering faintly like wind skimming across water. "I used to think so, too." He left. You were escorted out of the palace by the guards. Three days later, you received a pouch containing a rubbing of a bronze seal—its cord pattern was worn away, but the engravings ran deep, with two overlapping lines of text. On the back, he had written a line in ink: "If you have seen this, tell me what it is. I will wait for you by the Nile." You never saw him again. Later, you heard that he had waited by the riverbank for someone, though no one knew if that person ever came.